- Three short stories with the same cast in each: "Out of the Night," in which a woman is saved from a bigamous dilemma by a burglar; "The Great White Way," in which a couple of con men pull their con on the wrong man; and "A Tragedy of the East Side," in which a man who cannot speak or move is the only witness to his son's murder.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
- The first story is entitled "Out of the Night." The opening title reads "A story of the suburbs, where love builds its dream-dust future without reckoning on the ashes of the past; where birds come to rest and vultures to seek prey." A happily married woman lives with her husband and child. One night while her husband is away, she is surprised when her previous husband, a scoundrel she thought was dead, reappears. He demands money to keep quiet. A burglar, who is hiding on the scene, shoots and kills the former husband. The wife allows the burglar to escape. She takes the gun, and when her current husband arrives, tells him she has shot a burglar.
The second story is entitled "The Gay White Way." The opening title reads "The supple bodies of women put seductive messages into their glances, and their red, red lips give silent invitations - where plots and counterplots hide behind paints and tinsel, and the order is always ,'On with the dance!'" Two con artists aim to set up a married man. The "vamp" entices him at a party and becomes his mistress. The man says his wife is going to sue for divorce, so he decides leaves his mistress. His mistress fires a pistol as he leaves. He returns to find her motionless on the floor. The second con artist arrives, claiming to be the woman's husband. The married man gives him money to remain silent. The supposed husband leaves. But the tables are reversed on the pair when the married man returns, identifying himself as a detective.
The final episode is entitled "A Tragedy of the East Side," "where civilizations veneer is thinnest; where men do not weigh and measure but give and take; where impulse is stronger than reason and laws are defied; where love and lust and foe and woe play together in the game of life." An elderly paralytic lives in a room by the edge of the East River. His son's wife is a lowly person with no scruples. She takes up with the leader of a criminal gang. In the attic above his room, the paralytic realizes his son's wife is carrying on with this man. There is a fight over the woman. The police arrive and kill the gang leader. But the young husband is dead.
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